Executive Order 09-11

WHEREAS, the Department of Health and Senior Services is authorized pursuant to Chapter 192, RSMo; and

WHEREAS, Section 192.935, RSMo, places administration of the Blindness Education, Screening and Treatment (BEST) Program Fund with the Department of Health and Senior Services; and

WHEREAS, the Missouri Department of Social Services is authorized pursuant to Article IV, Section 12, of the Missouri Constitution and Chapter 660, RSMo; and

WHEREAS, Chapter 209 governs the Department of Social Services’ programs related to persons with visual, hearing, or physical disabilities; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Social Services’ Family Support Division oversees Rehabilitation Services for the Blind; and

WHEREAS, the Rehabilitation Services for the Blind’s stated mission is to create opportunities for eligible blind and visually impaired persons in order that they may attain personal and vocational success; and

WHEREAS, a portion of the BEST Program’s funding was transferred from the Department of Health and Senior Services to the Department of Social Services in the Fiscal Year 2008 budget and additional funding was added to the Department of Health and Senior Services’ budget for children’s eye examinations in Fiscal Year 2009; and

WHEREAS, current duties for delivering similar services assigned to these two state departments are duplicative, inefficient, and ineffective; and

WHEREAS, I am committed to consolidating executive branch operations to ensure that the state delivers vital services in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JEREMIAH W. (JAY) NIXON, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the State of Missouri, do hereby order the Department of Health and Senior Services and the Department of Social Services to:

1. Transfer all the authority, powers, duties, functions, records, personnel, property, contracts, budgets, matters pending, and other pertinent vestiges of the BEST Program to the Department of Social Services by Type I transfer, as defined under the Reorganization Act of 1974.
2. Develop mechanisms and processes necessary to effectively transfer the BEST Program to the Family Support Division’s Rehabilitation Services for the Blind in the Department of Social Services.
3. Transfer the responsibility for staff support for the program to the Department of Social Services’ Family Support Division.

This Order shall become effective no sooner than August 28, 2009, unless disapproved within sixty days of its submission to the First Regular Session of the 95th General Assembly.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Missouri, in the City of Jefferson, on this 4th day of February, 2009.